What Kind of Great Power Can Europe Become?

While EU policymakers cavil over constitutional questions about desired levels of European integration, global forces are imposing a political transformation on Europe. The only real question facing Europeans is whether they will establish themselves as a global power, or become a mere pawn of others.

BERLIN – World War II, and the period of decolonization that followed it, brought to an end the centuries-long global domination of Europe’s great powers. After 1945, neither of the global powers – the United States and the Soviet Union – was European, and a plethora of newly independent nation-states bounded onto the world stage.

Having achieved victories both in the Pacific and in Europe, only the US was strong enough to provide the still-dominant West with a political and economic order. America provided military protection and support for political cooperation and free trade, while the rest of the Western world sought to overcome the forces of nationalism and protectionism.

America also created rules-based international institutions. In Europe, this multilateral framework eventually evolved into a new (Western) European system of states: today’s European Union. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union on Christmas Day in 1991, the US became the world’s only superpower – and quickly overextended itself. The unipolar moment ended with the senseless US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 – a country from which the US has been trying to extricate itself for more than a decade.

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Joschka Fischer was German Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor from 1998-2005, a term marked by Germany's strong support for NATO's intervention in Kosovo in 1999, followed by its opposition to the war in Iraq. Fischer entered electoral politics after participating in the anti-establishment protests of the 1960s and 1970s, and played a key role in founding Germany's Green Party, which he led for almost two decades.

Strange article. Yes, climate change and digital revolution are TWO of the crucial, defining issues of today and the foreseeable future. [I would definitely include AI in this list.] The TWO issues do require extensive focused cooperation but not necessarily integration in some more permanent form. The TWO issues are emphasized in the context of the increasingly zero-sum world that is getting more selfish and abusive to generate and extract wealth, a world where powerful states will impose their will on others and possibly even absorb them - the new age of empires. Yes, Europe needs to cooperate as best as ever on the TWO issues, to uphold the global balance of power on these TWO issues. But this would only be a start - the first two big successes on the long road ahead. The uphold the global balance of power more permanently, Europe needs to integrate or confederate itself, which is the only way to consolidate coordinated and effective political will. The urgency requires a head-on approach, a direct discussion of the game changers. Weak pro-integration arguments and solutions have done more harm than good in the past. If you are facing an existential crisis, you have to discuss in simple and persuasive terms what the death means, why life is a better option, and how life can be saved, desirably without traumas and PTSDs.

"In a world quickly succumbing to zero-sum rivalries, becoming a climate-policy great power should be Europe’s top priority"

China's CO2 emissions dwarf those of Europe (and the USA). China isn't about to take orders from Europe. The developing word now accounts for a majority of CO2 emissions (and all of the growth Focusing on climate change will accelerate Europe's decline into irrelevance (a process rather advanced these days anyway).

Europe should focus on maintaining the prosperity and stability of the nations of Europe. Of course, that is exactly what the author does not want to do.

I agree with the author that it would be good for the EU if it was stronger, politically and militairely.Militairely: most EU NATO members fail to contribute to NATO what they agreed upon.Politically: he continues the Cold War, but fails to see the threat by the explosive population growth and the Islamic expansion.

Then the author proposes to postpone constitutional questions and move to become a great power.However it is the EU organisation that keeps the EU weak and uncompetitive, they are mainly busy with their internal politics. - between 2009 -2017 the economy of the Eurozone decreased by 2,7 %. In the same period the US economy increased by 39 %. The Chinese by 139 %.- think of all the EU mismanagement over the past 20 years: Greek crisis, Euro crisis, the unsustainable Euro, Migration crisis and the Brexit, etc.- the next EU budget: Brussels and France with their Southern Friends want more money to argiculture and social equality. The Northern members, who have to raise the money, want to invest in technology.- for the past 20 years a power struggle is taking place between; the EU Commision who wants to become the leader of the EU, France & friends who want to gain control over Germany and the competitive members in the North.For this pupose France has, recklessly, introduced the Euro. France is now attempting to give the 'coupe de grace' to the competitive members by introducing structural reforms in the Eurozone. Reforms which will turn the Eurozone into a Transfer Union. ( On the Global Competitiveness Index; Germany ranks 7, France 15, Italy 30)Appaling is the weak and provincial political and economic leadership by Germany.- my conclusion is that the EU will never become a great power when it does not drastically improve it's internal structure and increase it's competitiveness.Considered must be to break up the Eurozone, to stop the Transfer Union, direct the subsidies on investments for the future, replace the "ever closer union" by limited goals, introduce direct communication between the EU Commission and Memberstates.- It is also good to remember that it took the USA 200 years and several bloody wars to become one Nation. The Russians tried for 70 years to build a Nation, which ended in terror and poverty. ( J.E. Stiglitz, The Euro; Mody, Eurotragedy ).

Germany has heroically preserved it's nazi culture, according to the chinese artist Ai Weiwei. The experience gathered in conservationism might have prepared Germany and Europeans in general to the task of preserving the environment, task that is after all a necessary condition for the continuous preservation of Nazi culture.

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